Thursday, October 25, 2007

I was only thinking this morning that no-one has seen or heard from the wee fellow for about a month and I was getting concerned.Then the story broke.Rick Giles of NZB3 and Silent Running fame has been incarcerated in an American jail for the past month for staying a few days too long in the US of A.He was trying to leave the country for Canada when a policement noticed he had stayed in the country seven days too long, which Rick said was due to him getting his dates mixed up.But remember, he was trying to LEAVE America, he was not wanting to stay, he is no threat to America.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working on the case and the Libertarian community is rallying round. The ACT Party has been informed.

Dear Helen, I know he's not a supporter of yours, Rick is just a harmless little Libertarian from Canterbury.Please use whatever power you have to get the Americans to release him.I am sure you will find him more worthy of your time than a Saudi who frees drug criminals.You have duties closer to home Prime Minister, responsibilities to your own citizens.So Please Helen, use your power, show your leadership.

10 comments:

You are all heart, you PM.And I thought you were a caring socialist.But what seems odd is why has it taken so long for the news to reach NZ?The poor lad has been inside for a month and he was only a few days late in trying to leave.It's just a plea for justice.Surely something you want to see too.

The punishment doesn't seem to fit the offence by any stretch (ridiculously overpowered US anti-terrorism laws anyone?) but really, how dumb do you have to be to minsinterpret the date on your visa? It's right there, in black and white, in your passport. Having been in the US on two H2B visas previously myself, I can report that it's not bloody hard. Kind of ironic that the archaic iron jaws of beaurocracy in the country lauded by so many Libertarians as a 'beacon of freedom' have clamped so swiftly on a Libertarian.

But Rick has been on the road for quite some time.I travelled with him around parts of Oz last year and early this.You can easily lose track of time, not knowing or caring which day it is.Perhaps the policemen concerned had read some of Rick's comments on Silent Running.As a Libertarian, Rick is not into border controls that much. They intervene in the free market.He had been saying nice things about the Canadian tv show Little Mosque on the Prairie, perhaps falling for some of its pro-Muslim propoganda, not that he's an Islamist in any way. He's just not as anti-Islam as I am.I'm sure Rick will have an interesting tale to tell when he gets back to NZ.